OPay prices NYSE debut at bottom of range: Nigerian fintech raises KSh 39.43B ($304M)OPay prices NYSE debut at bottom of range: Nigerian fintech raises KSh 39.43B ($304M)
Key Highlights
- Nigerian payments firm OPay raised $304M (KSh 39.43B) in New York, pricing at the lowest point of its marketed range.
- The $19 (KSh 2,464.30) share price implies a valuation of about $4B (KSh 518.8B), roughly double its 2021 funding round.
- Standard Bank's banking arm is a joint bookrunner, and the sale is expected to close on 2 November.
OPay, the Nigerian mobile payments company, has priced its New York initial public offering at the bottom of its marketed range, raising $304M (KSh 39.43B) in a debut that tests investor appetite for African fintech.
The company sold 16 million American depositary shares at $19 (KSh 2,464.30) each, according to OPay's pricing announcement, against a marketed range of $19 to $21 (KSh 2,464.30 to KSh 2,723.70). The price implies a valuation of about $4B (KSh 518.8B).
Trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPAY was expected to begin on Friday 30 October, and the offer is due to close on 2 November, subject to customary conditions.
What pricing at the low end signals
A price at the foot of the range is usually read as a sign that buyers pushed back on valuation rather than competing for stock. It still leaves OPay worth about twice what investors paid in 2021, when it raised $400M (KSh 51.88B) at a valuation of $2B (KSh 259.4B). SoftBank entities held 6.6% of the company before the offering, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
OPay offers payments, money transfers, savings and loans through a single app. It launched in Nigeria in 2018 and serves more than 50 million users across Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. Its prospectus put monthly active users at about 50 million as of 31 July. The underwriters hold a 30-day option to buy up to 2.4 million more shares, worth about $45.6M (KSh 5.91B) at the offer price.
First-day trading figures were not available when this report was filed.
Standard Bank's role and the Kenyan read-across
The Standard Bank of South Africa is one of three joint book-running managers, alongside Citigroup Global Markets and Deutsche Bank. As Mwenendo earlier reported, OPay's filing also set out a Standard Bank investment agreement capped at $200M (KSh 25.95B) and conditional on the IPO closing.
Standard Bank also leads the continent's lenders by capital, as Mwenendo covered in its look at Africa's top 100 banks.
For Kenyan fintech founders weighing an offshore listing or a future Nairobi Securities Exchange float, the pricing sets a reference point. A large payments business with tens of millions of users could list abroad, but it did so at the lowest price it had marketed.
In Summary
- Who is listing?
- OPay Limited, a Nigerian digital payments company founded in 2018.
- What was priced?
- 16 million American depositary shares at $19 (KSh 2,464.30) each, raising $304M (KSh 39.43B).
- When does trading and closing happen?
- Trading was expected to begin on 30 October 2026; the offer is due to close on 2 November.
- Where will the shares trade?
- On the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPAY.
- Why does the price matter?
- It sits at the bottom of the $19 to $21 range and implies a valuation of about $4B (KSh 518.8B).
- How is the sale run?
- Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and The Standard Bank of South Africa are joint book-running managers.